THE NEW SEASON/FILM; THE ANNOTATED LISTINGS

What follows is a selective list; all opening dates are for New York and are subject to change.

September

PERMANENT MIDNIGHT -- The sitcom writer Jerry Stahl's harrowing autobiography is one of the most candid (and darkly funny) memoirs of heroin addiction ever written. Its screen adaptation, directed by David Veloz, stars Ben Stiller as Mr. Stahl. Elizabeth Hurley is his ex-wife, Janeane Garofalo his agent and Maria Bello his new love. Wednesday.

ONE TRUE THING -- A high-powered New York magazine journalist (Renee Zellweger) moves back in with her parents (Meryl Streep and William Hurt) to help care for her dying mother. Adapted from Anna Quindlen's best-selling novel and directed by Carl Franklin (''Devil in a Blue Dress''), it aspires to be an East Coast yuppie ''Terms of Endearment,'' with restrained three-hankie performances from Ms. Streep and Ms. Zellweger. Friday.

RUSH HOUR -- Jackie Chan teams up with the comedian Chris Tucker (playing a rogue Los Angeles cop) to solve a kidnapping and avert an international crisis. Friday.

ESMERALDA COMES BY NIGHT The comic title character is a nurse with five husbands. Friday.

A SOLDIER'S DAUGHTER NEVER CRIES -- This Merchant-Ivory film, adapted from an autobiographical novel by Kaylie Jones, daughter of the novelist James Jones, is similar in spirit to the team's 1990 gem ''Mr. and Mrs. Bridge.'' Divided into chapters, it depicts the author's family in Paris in the 1960's, then follows it back to the United States, where the children (Leelee Sobieski and Jesse Bradford) have difficulty adjusting to American teen-age life. Kris Kristofferson plays Bill Willis, the character based on Jones, and Barbara Hershey is his wife. Friday.

SHADRACH -- A middle-class boy (Scott Terra) growing up in Virginia during the Depression learns about life from his impoverished neighbors (Harvey Keitel and Andie MacDowell) and a 99-year-old former slave (John Franklin Sawyer) who returns from Alabama to die where he was born. Adapted from a William Styron short story by Susanna Styron, the author's daughter, and Bridget Terry; directed by Ms. Styron. Sept. 23.

THE LAST BIG THING -- Dan Zukovic wrote, directed and stars in a satire about the cult of celebrity and trash culture. As the editor of a nonexistent Los Angeles magazine, he conducts bogus interviews with a slew of second-rate actors, musicians and comedians. Sept. 23.

THE BRANDON TEENA STORY -- This true story about a young Nebraskan who was raped and murdered in 1993 after being revealed to be a woman won the best documentary prize at the Berlin Film Festival. Sept. 23.

PECKER -- In John Waters's latest camp frolic, Edward Furlong is a happy-go-lucky 18-year-old Baltimore sandwich-shop worker and amateur photographer whose candid snapshots of friends and family make him an art-world sensation. The movie's many oddball characters include his girlfriend (Christina Ricci), who runs a laundromat; his grandmother (Jean Schertler), who has conversations with a statue of the Virgin Mary, and an older sister (Martha Plimpton) who works in a gay strip joint. Sept. 25.

CLAY PIGEONS -- The dark comedy stars Joaquin Phoenix as a Montana gas-station attendant suspected of being a serial killer. With Vince Vaughn and Janeane Garofalo as an F.B.I. agent. Sept. 25.

LOLITA -- After much controversy, Adrian Lynes's film of the Nabokov classic finally makes it into theaters. Although it has its gauzy television-commercial moments, on the whole, it is remarkably faithful to the novel. Jeremy Irons's Humbert Humbert is the epitome of a doomed obsessional romantic, ravaged by desire, and Dominique's Swain's Lolita is even more impressive: a perfect hybrid of seductive scamp and wounded innocent. Sept. 25

RONIN -- This trickily plotted action thriller follows a bunch of former cold war spies through the streets of Paris in a desperate chase for a suitcase. John Frankenheimer directed. With Robert De Niro, Stellan Skarsgard and Jonathan Pryce. Sept. 25.

WELCOME TO WOOP WOOP -- Stephan Elliott (''Priscilla, Queen of the Desert'') directed this camp comedy starring Johnathon Schaech as a New York con man who flees to Australia, where he is held prisoner in a nutty outback town whose boss decrees that no one can leave and that the local movie theater must show only Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals. October.

THE EXTREME ADVENTURES OF SUPER DAVE -- With Bob Einstein, Gia Carides and Don Lake. The legendary comic stuntman Super Dave Osborne comes out of retirement for one last time, to raise money for charity. Early October.

THE SWINDLE -- Claude Chabrol's comedy thriller stars Isabelle Huppert and Michel Serrault as con artists caught up in an international scandal. October.

ANTZ -- In the animation wars, Dreamworks' insect movie is beating Disney's (''A Bug's Life'') to market. This entomological fantasy features a lowly worker ant named Z (the voice of Woody Allen), who is determined to win the love of the beautiful Princess Bala (Sharon Stone) and enlists his best friend (Sylvester Stallone) in his campaign. Oct. 2.

DEE SNIDER'S STRANGE LAND -- Twisted Sister's lead singer is a maniac who meets his victims in an on-line chat room. Horror. Oct. 2.

A NIGHT AT THE ROXBURY -- Another ''Saturday Night Live'' spinoff. The world's uncoolest party animals, Steve (Will Ferrell) and Doug (Chris Kattan) Butabi, find themselves in the hippest of all Los Angeles nightclubs, the Roxbury. Oct. 2.

WHAT DREAMS MAY COME -- After Robin Williams dies in a car crash and goes to heaven, his wife (Annabella Sciorra) commits suicide and goes to hell. Cuba Gooding Jr. is the angel who helps him find her. Adapted from a novel by Richard Matheson, it all sounds terribly icky, but then so did the plots of such inspirational crowd-pleasers as ''Ghost'' and ''City of Angels.'' Oct. 2.

SLAM -- Winner of the grand jury prize at Sundance, where it was a big crowd pleaser, this is the story of a Washington rapper and poet (Saul Williams) who is arrested on a petty drug charge and sent to prison, where he is saved by an inspirational writing teacher (Sonja Sohn). Likely to give a major lift to the poetry slam, that competitive hybrid of standup comedy, rap, performance art and literature that has developed into a national movement. Oct. 7.

HOLY MAN -- Will Eddie Murphy continue the winning streak of ''The Nutty Professor'' and ''Dr. Dolittle''? Here, he is a televangelist hired by the money-losing Good Buy Shopping Network to hawk the most outlandish assortment of gimmicky doodads, and ratings skyrocket. With Jeff Goldblum as the manager of the network. Oct. 9.

THE IMPOSTORS -- Stanley Tucci directed and stars with Oliver Platt in a comedy about two actors who stow away on a cruise ship. Oct. 9.

ONE TOUGH COP -- This crime drama based on the autobiography of the former New York police officer Bo Dietl (Stephen Baldwin) explores a heinous 1981 crime and a policeman's conflicting loyalties. With Chris Penn, Gina Gershon and Michael McGlone. Oct. 9.

PRACTICAL MAGIC -- Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman are witches afflicted with a family curse: any man who falls in love with them will die young. The sisters live with two eccentric aunts (Dianne Wiest and Stockard Channing). Trouble arrives when the more reckless of the sisters falls in love with a violent drifter (Goran Visnjic). Griffin Dunne directed. Oct. 9.

T-REX: BACK TO THE CRETACEOUS -- An IMAX trip back to the age of dinosaurs. Oct. 9.

THE CELEBRATION -- In this black comedy, which won the special jury prize at Cannes, a prosperous Danish family gathers to celebrate its patriarch's 60th birthday. As his three grown children tear at one another, the other guests are exposed to some ugly family secrets. Oct. 9.

THE INHERITORS -- A misanthropic Austrian farmer in the 1930's dies, bequeathing his estate to seven peasants. Oct. 9.

THE MIGHTY -- Two adolescent outcasts -- one big, gawky and slow in school (Elden Henson), the other a tiny scientific genius in leg braces (Kieran Culkin) -- form an unlikely alliance to perform heroic deeds worthy of King Arthur's court. Sharon Stone is the mother of the genius. Oct. 16.

RUDOLPH -- This animated story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer features the voices of John Goodman, Eric Idle, Bob Newhart, Debbie Reynolds, Richard Simmons and Whoopi Goldberg. Oct. 16.

THE ALARMIST -- A naive door-to-door peddler of home-security devices (David Arquette) learns about the dark side of salesmanship from his unscrupulous boss (Stanley Tucci). Based on Keith Reddin's play ''Life During Wartime.'' Oct. 16.

BELOVED -- Directed by Jonathan Demme, with a cast headed by Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover, the screen adaptation of the Toni Morrison novel is this season's ne plus ultra of high-minded literary adaptations. In the first movie in which she has received top billing, Ms. Winfrey plays a former slave in Ohio who is literally haunted by the child she murdered. Oct. 16.

APT PUPIL -- When a high-school student (Brad Renfro) discovers that a Nazi war criminal (Ian McKellen) has been secretly living in his hometown, he blackmails him into describing the atrocities he committed. Based on a Stephen King novella. Oct. 16.

HAPPINESS -- A pitch-black comic satire by Todd Solondz about the search for personal happiness in a New Jersey suburb finds only boredom, depression, vicious sibling rivalry, soul-deadening work, despair, suicide, murder and pedophilia under the bland, chirpy surface of its characters' lives. The scenes involving a pedophilic psychiatrist (Dylan Baker) with a picture-perfect ''Leave It to Beaver'' family don't just push the envelope; they rip it open. Oct. 16.

HOME FRIES -- Drew Barrymore is a small-town girl who is pregnant by a man whose whose dead body has been found in a field and who turns out to have been married. Catherine O'Hara is the dead man's scheming widow and Luke Wilson her son from a previous marriage, who falls in love with Ms. Barrymore. A dark romantic comedy. Oct. 23.

ORGAZMO -- A hunky but pious Mormon has a secret life as pornography superhero. Everything is fine until his fiancee finds out. Directed by Trey Parker, a creator of the television series ''South Park.'' Oct. 23.THE CRUISE -- Documentary about New York City observed through the eyes of an eccentric tour-bus guide. Oct. 23.

PLEASANTVILLE -- Two contemporary teen-agers enter the squeaky-clean world of a black-and-white 50's sitcom and teach the innocent cardboard 50's characters about sex and rock-and-roll. As the townspeople learn to feel, they change from black and white into color. More delicate and moodier than ''The Truman Show,'' which it resembles. With Tobey Maguire, Jeff Daniels, Reese Witherspoon and Joan Allen as an ideal, quintessentially repressed 50's housewife. Oct. 23.

LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL -- The Italian comic star Robert Benigni takes on Hitler and the Holocaust in a Chaplinesque serio-comedy that begins lightly, then acquires deepening layers of pathos when a childlike clown played by Mr. Benigni is deported to a concentration camp with his wife and young son. To shield his son from the reality of what's happening, he convinces the boy that it's only a game and goes to great lengths to explain the surrounding horrors. Winner of the grand jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Oct. 23.

THE LAST DAYS -- James Moll's film examines the lives of five Hungarian survivors of the Holocaust. Even when facing imminent defeat, Hitler brought the Holocaust to Hungary, which then had the largest remaining Jewish population. In just 60 days, 425,000 Hungarian Jews were deported and killed. Oct. 23.

RAZOR BLADE SMILE -- Campy vampiric horror. Oct. 24.

AMERICAN HISTORY X -- Edward Norton is a former skinhead who wants to turn his brother (Edward Furlong) away from a life of bigotry and hate. Directed by Tony Kaye. Oct. 30.

TALK OF ANGELS -- Based on a novel by Kate O'Brien, this romantic drama set on the eve of the Spanish Civil War stars Polly Walker as an Irish convent girl who takes a job as a governess in Spain. She falls in love with her employers' married, politically radical son (Vincent Perez). Oct. 30.

LIVING OUT LOUD -- Holly Hunter is a lonely Park Avenue divorcee and Danny DeVito an elevator operator with whom she develops a friendship that leans toward romance. With Queen Latifah, who displays a fine torch-singing voice. Richard LaGravenese wrote and directed. Oct. 30.

JOHN CARPENTER'S VAMPIRES -- The horror director takes on vampires in a story (based on a novel by John Steakley) that sends a vampire hunter portrayed by James Woods into the desert on a mission of destruction. Oct. 30.

November

A SIMPLE PLAN -- The discovery of $4 million in cash at the site of a crashed airplane changes the quiet lives of the rural people who find it. With Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton and Bridget Fonda. November.

A LETTER FROM DEATH ROW -- A suspense thriller written, directed and scored by Bret Michaels, lead singer of the rock band Poison. November.

DRY CLEANING -- Anne Fontaine directed this disturbing French film about owners of dry-cleaning establishment whose lives are transformed after they watch a brother-and-sister transvestite act at a gay bar in their sedate hometown. They decide to experiment sexually and adopt the androgynously seductive brother (Stanislas Merhar) as a surrogate son, an employee and a lover. Reminiscent of Joseph Losey's ''The Servant.'' November.

SUE -- A young New York woman (Anna Thomson) loses her secretarial job and her apartment and moves into a seedy hotel. Directed by Amos Kollek. November.

PORT DJEMA -- Eric Heumann won the best-director prize at the Berlin Film Festival for this drama set in an imaginary East African country that is visited by a Parisian surgeon in search of a lost child. November.

GODS AND MONSTERS -- Acclaimed at Sundance, this adaptation of Christopher Bram's novel ''Father of Frankenstein'' is a fictionalized account of the last days of the openly gay James Whale, who directed the horror classic ''Bride of Frankenstein.'' Ian McKellen is Whale, Lynn Redgrave his housekeeper and Brendan Fraser a young man on whom he develops a fixation. Nov. 4.

RIVER RED -- An abusive father, a parricide and a chain of consequences, set in rural New Hampshire. With Tom Everett Scott and David Moscow. Nov. 6.

THE BIG CHILL -- Re-release of the hit 1983 film about a reunion of 60's idealists. Nov. 6.

ELIZABETH -- This elegant 16th-century costume drama re-tells the story of the brilliant and politically canny English ruler who was crowned at the age of 25. Cate Blanchett stars. With Geoffrey Rush, Kathy Burke, Joseph Fiennes, Richard Attenborough, Christopher Eccleston and John Gielgud. Nov. 6.

THE WATERBOY -- Adam Sandler is a former water boy who wins a college athletic scholarship and wreaks comic havoc in and out of the classroom. Nov. 6.

I'LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS -- Jonathan Taylor Thomas finds himself stranded in the desert in a Santa suit. He hitchhikes home. Nov. 6.

WAKING NED DEVINE -- A comic fable set in an impoverished Irish village, one of whose residents wins a lottery. With Ian Bannen and David Kelly. Nov. 6.

VELVET GOLDMINE -- A rock-and-roll fantasy that borrows its style from Fassbinder and its story from ''Citizen Kane,'' this film is a fictionalized history of 1970's glam rock by the gifted director Todd Haynes (''Safe''). The central figure is a bisexual, David Bowie-like superstar (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) whose career plummets after he fakes his own assassination onstage. Ewan McGregor is his Iggy Pop-like cohort. Nov. 6.

JACK FROST -- A year after the title character (Michael Keaton), a musician on the verge of stardom, dies in a car crash, he returns to earth as a snowman built by his young son Charlie (Joseph Cross). Nov. 6.

THE SIEGE -- Bruce Willis is a United States Army general in a political thriller about terrorism on the streets of New York and a declaration of martial law. With Denzel Washington and Annette Bening. Nov. 6.

CELEBRITY -- No one knows better than Woody Allen the rewards and punishments of fame. And no one is better equipped to find new levels of humor in its pleasures and frustrations. The surest sign that the movie might be a high-water mark in Mr. Allen's career is its selection as the New York Film Festival's opening-night movie. The cast includes Kenneth Branagh, Judy Davis, Leonardo DiCaprio, Melanie Griffith, Joe Mantegna and Winona Ryder. Nov. 13.

DANCING AT LUGHNASA -- This adaptation of the Brian Friel play contemplates the unraveling of a tightly knit Irish Catholic family that includes five unmarried sisters (and the illegitimate son of one of them). The tensions escalate when their only brother (Michael Gambon), who has been doing missionary work in Africa, returns to the fold during an annual festival that's linked to a pagan deity (the year is 1936). With Meryl Streep, Brid Brennan, Catherine McCormack, Sophie Thompson and Kathy Burke. Nov. 13.

MEET JOE BLACK -- Reputed to be the most expensive romantic drama ever filmed, this supernatural romance updates the 1930's Hollywood classic ''Death Takes a Holiday,'' starring Frederic March. Death assumes the form of a recently killed young man (Brad Pitt) to find out why he scares people, and discovers the joys of life and love (with Claire Forlani). Anthony Hopkins is his sweetheart's businessman father. The ''Touched by an Angel'' syndrome strikes again. Martin Brest (''Scent of a Woman'') directed. Nov. 13.

A BUG'S LIFE -- With Pixar animation, the Disney movie further extends the animation technology of ''Toy Story.'' A misfit ant tries to save his colony from a gang of evil grasshoppers, but his ineffectual troops turn out to be the motley refugees of a flea circus in need of mobilization. John Lasseter (''Toy Story'') directed with Andrew Stanton. Many celebrity voices. Nov. 20.

THE RUGRATS MOVIE -- A Pickles family adventure spun off from the popular series on the Nickelodeon cable network. Nov. 20.

BLOOD, GUTS, BULLETS

AND OCTANE -- Word of mouth on John Carnahan's no-budget road movie is enthusiastic. Nov. 20

CENTRAL STATION -- A young boy (Vinicius de Oliveira) whose mother is killed in front of Rio de Janeiro's Central Station is befriended by a former schoolteacher (Fernanda Montenegro), who returns him to his father in northeastern Brazil. During the rugged journey, their distaste for each other melts into love. Winner of the best film award at the Berlin festival. Nov. 20.

SAVIOR -- In this antiwar drama, Dennis Quaid plays an American mercenary fighting in Serbia who saves the life of an orphaned newborn baby. With Nastassja Kinski and Stellan Skarsgard. Nov. 20.

I STILL KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER -- Mayhem begins in the sequel to last year's teen horror blockbuster when Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and three friends visit the Bahamas on an all-expenses-paid trip. Nov. 20.

AT FIRST SIGHT -- Irwin Winkler directed the romantic drama based on a true story about a New York City architect (Mira Sorvino) who falls in love with a blind masseur (Val Kilmer) and persuades him to undergo experimental surgery that will restore his sight. The surgery succeeds but. . . . Nov. 20.

VERY BAD THINGS -- The directorial debut of the ''Chicago Hope'' actor Peter Berg is a savage comedy about a bachelor party in Las Vegas that takes a deadly turn when a prostitute is accidentally killed during sex. The paranoia, deception and violence escalate, turning buddies against one another. A scathing satire on male bonding, sibling rivalry and empty suburban values. Cameron Diaz is a selfish bride who won't let anything stand in the way of her wedding, and Christian Slater a demonic real-estate salesman with a solution for every problem. Nov. 25.

BABE: PIG IN THE CITY -- The sheep-herding Australian porker who seduced the world three years ago is back, this time oinking into the city to try to bail out Boss Hoggett's debt-ridden farm. Nov. 25.

ENEMY OF THE STATE -- Will Smith and Gene Hackman star in a Jerry Bruckheimer-produced drama about a rising young lawyer whose career is derailed when he is framed for murder by a corrupt intelligence official. Nov. 25.

December

SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE -- The young William Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes), suffering from writer's block in the middle of creating an early play, falls madly in love with Viola (Gwyneth Paltrow), an aspiring performer who disguises herself as a man to audition. Out of his sudden passion comes ''Romeo and Juliet.'' Tom Stoppard wrote the screenplay with Marc Norman. With Colin Firth, Ben Affleck and Judi Dench. Dec. 4.

PSYCHO -- Why would the hot director Gus Van Sant (''Good Will Hunting'') want to remake Alfred Hitchcock's kinky horror classic, especially when the new version uses Joseph Stefano's original screenplay and Bernard Herrmann's score (dressed up by Danny Elfman)? Why should he choose the beefy Vince Vaughn to fill spindly Tony Perkins's quivering shoes? There must be a reason. With Anne Heche in the shower. Dec. 4.

STAR TREK: INSURRECTION -- Traveling to a planet that is a fountain of youth, Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) stumbles into an intergalactic conspiracy. The ninth film in the ''Star Trek'' series should be a hit just like its predecessors. Dec. 11.

LITTLE VOICE -- In a town in northern England, a reclusive young woman (Jane Horrocks) who barely speaks has developed the uncanny ability to reproduce the recorded sounds of vintage pop singers. She finds her soul mate in an equally shy telephone engineer (Ewan McGregor). When her sister (Brenda Blethyn) and a sleazy local talent agent (Michael Caine) decide they can make millions on her gift, she reluctantly decides to go public. Dec. 11.

THE GENERAL -- John Boorman directed this biographical drama about the notorious Irish gangster Martin Cahill (Brendan Gleeson), who was shot dead by the Irish Republican Army on the eve of the 1994 cease-fire. Dec. 18.

MIGHTY JOE YOUNG -- Another mega-beast is resuscitated from Hollywood's B-movie past to go on a rampage, this time through the streets of Los Angeles. With Bill Paxton and Charlize Theron. Dec. 18.

PRINCE OF EGYPT -- Much is riding on the fortunes of Dreamworks' Christmas entry into the animation sweepstakes. The sweeping family-style epic tells the story of Moses (voice of Val Kilmer) and Ramses (Ralph Fiennes). Stephen Schwartz (''Pocahontas'') wrote its six songs. Other voices include Sandra Bullock, Danny Glover, Jeff Goldblum, Steve Martin, Helen Mirren, Michelle Pfeiffer, Martin Short and Patrick Stewart. Dec. 18.

YOU'VE GOT MAIL -- ''Sleepless in Seattle'' redux. Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan unite again under the directorial baton of Nora Ephron, but this time they're in New York. He owns a bookstore super-chain and she runs a small children's bookstore his behemoth wants to devour. Naturally, when they meet anonymously in cyberspace, they fall in love. Expect charm, but not much depth. Dec. 18.

AFFLICTION -- Paul Schrader's powerful film is an uncompromising adaptation of a bleak Russell Banks novel set in an economically depressed town in northern New Hampshire. As a police officer (Nick Nolte) copes with grave domestic problems, he becomes increasingly unstrung, venting years of pent-up anger at his abusive father (James Coburn). The movie is cast in a dark-blue winter light, and the performances by Mr. Nolte, Sissy Spacek and Mary Beth Hurt go for the jugular. Dec. 20.

PATCH ADAMS -- Robin Williams's title character is a former mental patient who discovers the healing power of humor and brings his theories to medical school, where he plays the class clown. Dec. 25.

THE WIZARD OF OZ -- The theatrical re-release of the 1939 family classic starring Judy Garland, enhanced with digitally restored and re-mastered sound and other technical improvements. Dec. 25.

THE FACULTY -- ''Clueless'' meets ''Invasion of the Body Snatchers'' in this special-effects-laden science-fiction horror film; from a screenplay by Kevin Williamson, who wrote ''Scream'' and ''Scream 2.'' With Elijah Wood, Laura Harris and Josh Harnett. Dec. 25.

A CIVIL ACTION -- John Travolta stars in this drama based on Jonathan Harr's best-selling nonfiction account of a lawyer, Jan Sclichtmann, who spent nearly a decade fighting two corporations he believed responsible for toxic pollution that affected eight families in a Boston suburb. Directed by Steven Zaillian. With Robert Duvall, Kathleen Quinlan and Kathy Bates. Dec. 25.

THE THIN RED LINE -- World War II strikes again, this time from the pen of James Jones (it's an adaptation of his 1962 novel) by way of Terrence Malick, the esteemed director (''Badlands,'' ''Days of Heaven'') who is emerging from two decades of retirement. But will the 1942 Battle of Guadalcanal play as well as the D-Day invasion did in Steven Spielberg's ''Saving Private Ryan''? With Sean Penn, John Cusack, Adrien Brody, Jim Caviezel, Ben Chaplin, Elias Koteas, Dash Minok, Nick Nolte, Bill Pullman, Larry Romano and John Travolta. Dec. 25.

THEORY OF FLIGHT -- Kenneth Branagh is a frustrated artist who has a run-in with the law and is sentenced to perform 120 hours of community service. Helena Bonham Carter is the crusty wheelchair-bound caretaker of the establishment to which he is directed. Dec. 25.

DOWN IN THE DELTA -- The directorial debut of the poet Maya Angelou tells the story of Rosa Lynn (Mary Alice), a grandmother who pawns a valuable heirloom to move the family from the mean streets of Chicago back to the ancestral home in the Mississippi Delta. Alfre Woodard is her troubled daughter and Mpho Koaho and Kulani Hassen her grandchildren.With Al Freeman Jr., Esther Rolle, Loretta Devine and Wesley Snipes. Dec. 25.

STEPMOM -- When it comes to high-toned suds, this serious comedy has the field pretty much to itself. Susan Sarandon is a divorced wife who loathes her husband's new girlfriend (Julia Roberts) but turns to her for help when illness strikes. The cat fights turn into a weepy love-in. No one can beat Ms. Sarandon in projecting nobility, and both stars have those larger-than-life dreamy eyes you can get lost in. Dec. 25.

HILLARY AND JACKIE -- In this harsh psychological drama based on real people, Emily Watson (''Breaking the Waves'') is the famous cellist Jacqueline du Pre and Rachel Griffiths the estranged sister with whom she reconciles after developing a disabling illness. Expect a mininum of disease-of-the-week sentimentality and a maximum of venomous sibling conflict. Late December.

Early 1999 and Beyond --

THE ASTRONAUT'S WIFE -- With Johnny Depp and Charlize Theron. Directed by Rand Ravich. No matter what, the chameleonlike Mr. Depp will stretch his formidable talents. March 12.

AUSTIN POWERS II -- With Mike Myers and Heather Graham. Diehard 60's swingers never die, they just get nuttier. And that's groovy. June 11.

BLAST FROM THE PAST -- Future shock. Brendan Fraser plays a man reared in a bomb shelter who emerges after 30 years to search for a wife and discovers a world that has changed so much, it is almost unrecognizable. With Alicia Silverstone, Sissy Spacek and Christopher Walken. Feb. 12.

CONDO PAINTING -- A portrait of the New York artist George Condo includes the last recorded interviews with the Beat legends William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg.

THE DEEP END OF THE OCEAN -- With Michelle Pfeiffer, Treat Williams, Whoopi Goldberg and Lucinda Jenney. Directed by Ulu Grosbard. Feb.22.

THE DREAM LIFE OF ANGELS -- The movie for which Elodie Bouchez and Natacha Regnier shared the best-actress award at Cannes, it explores the deepening bond between two women of opposite temperament and background. Ms. Bouchez is an exuberant vagabond, and Ms. Regnier a moody introvert The directorial debut of Erick Zonca.

IN DREAMS -- With Annette Bening, Aidan Quinn and Robert Downey Jr. Directed by Neil Jordan.

ISN'T SHE GREAT -- Bette Midler portrays Jacqueline Susann, the ''Valley of the Dolls'' author, and Nathan Lane is her husband and manager, Irving Mansfield. Written by Paul Rudnick and directed by Andrew Bergman.

THE LEAGUE -- With Al Pacino and Dennis Quaid. Directed by Oliver Stone.

MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE -- With Kevin Costner, Paul Newman and Robin Wright Penn. A love story filmed amid the world of sailing off the coast of Maine.

SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS -- With Ethan Hawke, James Cromwell, Max von Sydow and Youki Koudoh. Scott Hicks directs this adaptation of David Guterson's novel about a Japanese man in the Pacific Northwest who is unjustly accused of murder. Feb. 19.

TOWN AND COUNTRY -- With Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton and Goldie Hawn. Directed by Peter Chelsom.

TRUE CRIME -- With Clint Eastwood, James Woods and Diane Venora.

24-HOUR WOMAN -- Rosie Perez is a high-powered television producer whose life changes drastically with the birth of her first child. Directed by Nancy Savoca.